The Real Feast

November 23, 2025
The Real Feast
Sermon Audio

CENTRAL TEXT: Romans 12:9-16

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 100

LEADER: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 
Serve the Lord with gladness! 
Come into his presence with singing! 

ALL: Know that the Lord, he is God! 
It is he who made us, and we are his; 
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  

LEADER: Enter his gates with thanksgiving, 
  And his courts with praise! 
  Give thanks to him; bless his name!

ALL: For the Lord is good; 
His steadfast love endures forever, 
And his faithfulness to all generations. 

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: The Apostles’ Creed

LEADER: In our moment fraught with division and disunity, Christian, what do we believe?

ALL: We believe in God the Father Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. Amen. 

CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER: 

CONFESSION OF SIN:

LEADER: Let us confess our sin to the Lord.

ALL: Almighty God, your word and our hearts confirm that we are sinners in desperate need of your grace. We have done things you have forbidden and left undone things you have commanded. We have not loved you with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have made too much of created things and too little of our Creator. As Judge of the whole earth you would be just to condemn us. Yet in your love You sent Christ to bear the guilt of our sin and suffer our punishment. And in a most glorious exchange, you imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. To Him now we flee for grace; forgive us for His sake, and by your Spirit help us to live in the light of his sacrifice and the glorious feast of the Lamb to come. Amen.  

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Romans 7:24-25, 8:1

LEADER: Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!...There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

ALL: Hallelujah!

BENEDICTION: Revelation 19:6b-9

LEADER: “Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
  the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
  and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
  and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
  with fine linen, bright and pure”—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 

ALL: Amen!

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

Isaiah 53:5
Luke 14:15-23 
John 15:15
Romans 12:1-2
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:3
2 Corinthians 6:6
Revelation 19:6-9 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

  1. What makes for a memorable Thanksgiving meal? How do relationships factor into the feast’s success? 
  2. Honest answers only: How would you grade the Christians you know well as to the genuineness of their love? Next, how about our own church family? And, last but not least, what about yourself?
  3. If friendship is being known and being loved anyway, as Justin Earley defines it, what are your friendships like? How are you doing as a friend? 
  4. How does the gospel make friendship with God possible? Is friendship with God possible without friendship with others? Discuss how they relate.
  5. In the list of virtues in Romans 12:9-17, which ones encourage you most? Which ones most challenge you? Name a few ways you can practice these virtues during this holiday week. 

Illustrations:

Nov 23, 2025

QUOTES:  

A friend is someone who knows you fully and loves you anyway. 
Think about how we feel when we see someone we loved ravaged by unwise actions or relationships. Real love stands against the deception, the lie, the sin that destroys. 
- Rebecca Manley Pippert 
Christianity is a house that needs cleaning, a house in which savagery and cowardice have thrived, where evil has a room with a view. But it is also a house where hope lives, and hope is the greatest of mercies, the most enduring of gifts, the most nutritious of foods. Hope is what we drink from the odd story of the carpenter’s odd son. 
- Heidie Senseman
The best defense against hypocrisy is love; indeed, it is not only a defense but a chasmic abyss; in all eternity it has nothing to do with hypocrisy. This also is a fruit by which love is known—it secures the loving one against falling into the snare of the hypocrite. 
- Soren Kiegegaard
How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos. G.K. Chesterton
And so that intersection of “Is this true? Does it feel real? Is it sincere? Is it honest? Is it authentic?” with “Is this God honoring?” is really interesting to me. 
- John Van Duesen
A good gauge of how vulnerable you are being is how nauseous you feel. And a dose of nausea, unfortunately, is usually what it takes to get close to strangers. When you make a friend, you give them the opportunity to hurt you, yet you have to accept that risk to have proximity. There isn’t another way to do it….I will always think of my first Thanksgiving in the city as an answer to prayer, a relief of that nagging fear that we would be alone. There was abundance waiting for me on the other side of fear, and I had to risk opening a door and setting a table to fully live in that abundance. I encourage you to use the Thanksgiving holiday to take that same risk. To briefly feed and provide warmth to weary workers, to create one small glimpse of the table waiting in heaven. We all need tables to hold us up. 
- Jenna O’Brien
I am sure that there is no place in the world where your message would not be enhanced by your making the place (whether tiny or large, a hut or a palace) orderly, artistic and beautiful with some form of creativity, some form of ‘art’....If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation.” 
- Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Home-Making
The purpose of your gathering is more than an inspiring concept. It is a tool—a filter that helps you determine all the details, grand and trivial… Reverse engineer an outcome: Think of what you want to be different because you gathered, and work backward from that outcome. Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering 
The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man. 
- A.W. Tozer

Books / Docs

Justin Whitmel Earley, Made For People: Why We Drift Into Loneliness And How To Fight For A Life Of Friendship
Heidie Senseman,“The State of Christian Literature: Smashing Our Small Cosmos”
Jenna O’Brien, “Starting Community From Scratch: How to host a Thanksgiving feast”